


Whose Story is This, In the End?

by saviorofauldrant



Series: Natsume Week 2019 [5]
Category: Natsume Yuujinchou | Natsume's Book of Friends
Genre: Gen, natsume week 2019
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-05
Updated: 2019-07-05
Packaged: 2020-06-13 02:36:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,191
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19591159
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/saviorofauldrant/pseuds/saviorofauldrant
Summary: “Sensei?”“Hmm?”“When I’m gone, will you remember which stories are about me, and which are about Reiko-san?”“Pfft, like I could mix the two of you up.”





	Whose Story is This, In the End?

Natsume had been mistaken for his grandmother more times than he could count. Humans, of course, knew Reiko would be an old woman by now if she were alive and usually made the correct assumption that Natsume was her relative—but yokai were never super great with things like the passage of time.

Even the yokai that knew she was gone would sometimes seem to forget.

Natsume never stopped her when Hinoe reminisced about a story Natsume couldn’t remember, a faraway look in her eyes as she recounted an adventure Natsume had never been on.

“It was so beautiful, Reiko,” Hinoe would sigh, a soft affection in her voice as she forgot the woman she loved was gone, “I wish we could go together again, soon.”

She would always remember afterwards, and Natsume always smiled as he softly turned away her guilty apologies, letting her gently touch his cheek and study his face longingly.

When sensei wasn’t around, Misuzu would challenge Natsume to various kinds of battles and competitions, his painful looking grin excited as he claimed he wouldn’t lose this time. He would hand Natsume weapons he didn’t know how to use and tilt his giant head in confusion when Natsume quietly explained that he didn’t know how to play such a game.

The resulting confusion, then light embarrassment, never lasted long before Misuzu offered to teach Natsume the basics of how to use a sword, then a naginata, then a bow, and one day even taught him the rules to _karuta_. 

When Misuzu would later challenge Natsume to a game of _durama otoshi_ , Natsume simply smiled and played along with the rules Misuzu had taught him before—afraid to ask who the large horse yokai thought he was playing with.

Most of the time, the yokai Natsume returned names to sadly left the Fujiwara house with the knowledge that the woman they had given their freedom to had left this world without ever having called their name. Sometimes, though, they stayed. They would follow Natsume around the town for a few days, or spend a week or two in Yatsuharu, asking ‘Reiko’ to play with them. 

Sometimes they’d refuse the returning of their name, claiming they’d wait for Reiko to call them at least once.

Natsume used to protest more at the beginning, try over and over again to make them understand, but after months of returning names he stopped bothering. If they didn’t understand the first time, they never would.

It was nice, Natsume thought sometimes, that he had met yokai that never knew his grandmother. Kappa liked to play games with Natsume too, always games the two of them had played together before. The chuukyuu had heard tales of the infamous Natsume Reiko, but had their own fun spreading silly stories about cute little Natsume Takashi who once caught a cold while picking flowers. There were always yokai that came to Hitoyoshi not because they searched for the Book of Friends or it’s previous owner, but because they wanted to meet the kind Natsume-sama that was said to answer any request. (Not that Natsume was super happy about that rumor.)

The yokai that came looking for his grandmother and left with a stolen name returned were precious to Natsume—but the yokai he met either by coincidence or by his own name hold their own, separate, part of Natsume’s heart.

There was one yokai, however, that knew his grandmother but never seemed to look through Natsume at someone else.

Nyanko-sensei, Madara, had some sort of relationship with Reiko, Natsume knew. He claimed his name wasn’t in the Book of Friends, but he had recognized Natsume on sight when they first met and the human form he always took was that of Natsume’s grandmother. He always claimed it was because that was the only human he knew well enough to copy easily. Well, except Natsume, that is.

Sensei didn’t press for information about Natsume’s past before the Fujiwaras, and Natsume offered the same consideration. Not everyone wanted to air themselves out to the world, after all. Natsume was too polite to go asking Hinoe and Benio about who sensei used to be, and how that had led him to Reiko.

“You really aren’t much like her, you know,” Nyanko-sensei once commented, yawning lazily after chewing Natsume out for making the book even more thin, the small flowr-like yokai waving happily as it left, promising to come back and play with ‘Reiko’ again soon, “I don’t know how all these fools keep mistaking you for her.”

Natsume stilled at that, hand left resting on the Book of Friends he had been placing on his desk, “How so?”

“Hmm?”

“What—what makes me different from her?”

The fat cat huffed out a half-assed laugh at that, stubbornly keeping his eyes closed and faced away from Natsume as he continued to be ‘angry’ at the boy for returning a name, “Oh please, that girl would have been able to take you out immediately.”

“I know she was more powerful than me—”

“Not more powerful, per say, a better fighter.”

“But how was she—” Natsume paused, frowning down at the green cover beneath his fingers, “How are we different?”

Natsume wasn’t looking at Sensei anymore, but he could feel sharp green eyes turn towards him, “You’ve seen her memories,” The yokai finally answered, his voice carefully casual and bored, “You know what she was like.” 

Natsume nodded, but Nyanko-sensei must have sensed that he wasn’t satisfied and after a beat he continued on, “You’re both equally reckless, stubborn, and spent more time with yokai than with your own kind,” Natsume felt disappointment well up inside of him, glad that he was facing away from his companion.

“ _But_ ,” Sensei’s voice raised a bit into what was almost an annoyed whine and Natsume startled a bit, turning his head slightly to catch his cat stretching out across the tatami mats, “You ended up so _different_ from her! She’d beat up any yokai that came near her and yet you seem to be so spineless that you’ve become some sort of errand boy for the yokai.”

“I’m not spineless,” Natsume instinctively argued, though rather than his usual petulant pout, there was a small soft smile on his lips.

“You _are_! If Reiko had so many yokai knocking at her door she would have found some talismans and fought ‘em off—while you invite them all in for tea!”

Natsume, despite himself, laughed at that, “I don’t give tea to _every_ yokai, Sensei—”

The proud cat scoffed a Natsume’s giggling, waddling over closer to smack Natsume’s thigh with a paw, “Honestly you two make friends in such different ways. You’re lucky you have me here to keep you alive, brat.”

Natsume smiled down at the cat before gently lifting him up onto his lap, “I know, Sensei.”

Nyanko-sensei huffed and curled up on Natsume’s legs, “And I’m not going anywhere until I get that book.”

“I know, Sensei.”

“Sensei?”

“Hmm?”

“When I’m gone, will you remember which stories are about me, and which are about Reiko-san?”

“Pfft, like I could mix the two of you up.”

**Author's Note:**

> A little more drabble-y than the others, but there's dialogue at the end cause I can't do just drabbles.
> 
> I looked up traditional Japanese games for the Misuzu part lol  
> Karuta is the game that has an anime where they finish famous poems/sayings and slap a card or something and durama otoshi is kinda like jenga put instead of pulling out the bottom piece you get to hit it with a hammer  
> http://trip-n-travel.com/listicle/8838/ they're explained here near the bottom


End file.
